List of Abstracts (In Alphabetical Order)

Workshop

"Modern adaptations of Sufi-based popular Islam:
Concepts, practices and movements in a translocal perspective."

Centre for Modern Oriental Studies, Berlin

April 4 and 5, 2003

List of abstracts (in alphabetical order)

- Dr. Chanfi Ahmed and Achim von Oppen, CMOS Berlin:
"Saba Ishirini: A ceremony of commemoration as performance of translocality around the Southern Swahili Coast"

- Dr. Hussein Ahmed, Addis Ababa University:
Shaykh Jawhar b. Haydar b. 'Ali (d.1937): A Mystic and Scholar of Shonke, Southeast Wallo, Ethiopia

- Dr. Eva Evers-Rosander, Uppsala University:
"Expressions of Female Religiosity: Mourid Women's Veneration of Mam Diarra Bousso in Senegal and Spain"

- Prof. Marc Gaborieau, EHESS Paris:
"What is left of Sufism in Tablighi Jama'at ?"

- Dr. Albrecht Hofheinz, CMOS Berlin:
"Sudanese Sufis on the Internet"

- Dr. Michael Laffan, Leiden University:
"From alternative medicine to national cure: The Indonesian periodical <Sufi>."

- Dr. Roman Loimeier, Universität Bayreuth: ""Networks of saints: transnational links of the Qadiriyya"

- Prof. Alexandre Popovic, EHESS Paris :
"Les Turuq balkaniques au tournant."

- Dr. Dietrich Reetz, CMOS Berlin:
"Sufi spirituality fires reformist zeal: the Tablighi Jamaat in today's India and Pakistan"

- Samuli Schielke, M.A. ISIM Leiden:
"'...so that there is some discipline'. When discourses of rationality and order enter the Egyptian Mawlid"

- Dr. Dorothea Schulz, Freie Universität Berlin:
"Mass-mediated charisma and the reconfiguration of traditional religious authority in urban Mali"

- Dr. Rüdiger Seesemann, Universität Bayreuth:
"Ibrâhîm Niasse (1900-1975) and the revival of Sufism in sub-Saharan Africa"

- Dr. Georg Stauth, Universität Mainz:
"Shaikhs and Walis among the Bedouins of North Sina - Bedouinism and Islamic Transgression"

- Prof. Mohammad Talib, Oxford University:
"World-making in a diasporic condition: A case of a Sufi order in England"

- Dr. Thomas Zitelmann (CMOS Berlin) and Dr. Ralph Ghadban (Berlin): "The 'Habashiya - Tendencies of mobilization and differentiation in translocal contexts."

Dr. Chanfi Ahmed and Achim von Oppen (CMOS Berlin):

"Saba Ishirini: A ceremony of commemoration as performance of translocality around the Southern Swahili Coast"
Saba Ishrin is the main annual ceremony of the tarîqa Shâdhiliyya-Yashrutiyya in East Africa. It is celebrated on the Comoro islands, in Madagascar, Tanzania, Kenya, Mozambique and Uganda on the 27th of the month Djamâd ath-Thânî, from where its name is derived. This ceremony serves to commemorate the anniversary of the death of the founder of this tarîqa in the region, Sayyid Muhammad b. Ahmad al-Ma'rûf (1269/1852 to 1904) who is buried in Moroni (Ngazija/Grande Comore). The Shâdhiliyya-Yashrutiyya has attracted less attention among researchers than other turuq, despite its important contribution to the spread and linkages of Swahili culture in the region just mentioned. The Saba Ishrin ceremony is a way of regularly re-enacting these linkages across the boundaries of the various nation-states through the medium of memory. Starting from an analysis of the Saba Ishirin on the Comoros in 2001 and in Tanzania in 2002, our contribution will examine how adherents of the tarîqa Shâdhiliyya are adapting themselves to their modern context, notably how they reconstruct their translocal connectedness which historically was the basis of their expansion. Special attention will be paid to a particular recent development in connection with the performance of this ceremony, which might be called the " caravan of the Saba Ishrin": a collective visit (ziyâra) of different localities of Tanzania before or after the ceremony itself, by the leader of the tarîqa and his muridûn from the capital Dar es Salaam who travel in convoys of cars and ships (dhows). During this tour dhikr or hadhra are performed at each place in combination with the more modern medium of the sermon, bringing together crowds of local participants with rather different social and religious background. The tour has also an edifying effect for the muridûn who share their resources and a communal way of life for about three weeks, resembling a Sufi khalwa (retreat). Different aspects of this "caravane" will be discussed: the position of the Shaykh who uses this occasion to strengthen his authority by rallying the rank and file against reformist opposition but also by mediating in local conflicts; its importance for urban migrants for whom this is an occasion of reasserting their links to their home areas; the active role of women participants which parallels the one of the men, both spiritually and organisationally; and the question in what way these tours combine communitarian and hierarchical concepts of religious sociality.11

Dr. Ahmed Hussein (Addis Ababa University):

Shaykh Jawhar b. Haydar b. 'Ali (d.1937): A Mystic and Scholar of Shonke, Southeast Wallo, Ethiopia

In the history of Islamic mysticism in Wallo between the middle of the nineteenth and the first half of the twentieth centuries, Shaykh Jawhar, popularly known as Abbayye Shonke or Shonkeyy, stands out as one of the most prominent exponents of the Sufi tradition that characterized Islam in the region.
Shaykh Jawhar's entire career was permeated by his rejection of the trend towards turning away from Orthodox Islam and the lapse into religious symbiosis, as manifested in the resurgence of popular beliefs and practices, and of the abandonment of Islam through conversion to Christianity, imposed by the Ethiopian state and church in the 1870s and 1880s. He reacted to the first phenomenon by composing treatises in defence of Orthodoxy and to the second development by retreating to the lowlands of southeast Wallo where he established a ribat at Shonke, following the baptism of Imam Muhammad 'Ali, the hereditary ruler of Warra Himano, with whom he had studied the Qur'an and other Islamic subjects.

Shaykh Jawhar's zawiyya later became a centre of education, meditation and veneration where the pious and the ordinary folk paid their respects to his sanctity. One of them was a Yemeni immigrant who spent much of his adult life under the mystical guidance of the shaykh and his descendants until recently.
This paper about the life and ideas of Shaykh Jawhar is based on two of his published works (al-Jawahir al-Haydariyya [Cairo, 1906] and al-Bid'at al-Sanniyya 'ala'l-Lu'mat al-Bahiyya [Cairo, 1929/30]), biographical accounts and oral sources.11

Dr. Eva Evers-Rosander (Uppsala University):

"Expressions of Female Religiosity: Mourid Women's Veneration of Mam Diarra Bousso in Senegal and Spain"

This paper is inspired by my Senegalese Sufi experiences and deals with the ethnography of female religiosity. I am writing about Mourid women in Senegal and Spain and their expressions of religiosity in connection with the annual pilgrimage to Porokhane in honour of Mam Diarra Bousso. She is a famous woman among the Mourids, the mother of the founder of Mouridism, Shaykh Amadou Bamba. Actually, she is the female religious ideal in Mouridism. Many Mourids make the annual pilgrimage to her tomb in Porokhane, Senegal. That is why the Mam Diarra cult and its rituals serves as the point of departure for the study of female expressions of belief in Mam Diarra.

My focus is on how women verbally and physically give outlet for their religiosity and also on how these expressions are perceived and interpreted by the male Mourid establishment. In order to get a comparative perspective on ritual, belief and religiousity, I am including Mourid women's expressions of belief and religiousity in the diaspora, in this case in Tenerife, Spain.

In the Mourid religious literature, all attention is dedicated to the description of the founder's religious personality and his work, his sanctity and his miracles. There also exists a treasure of the founder's own religious texts, mostly in the form of songs (khasaid), based on the Koran. Very little attention is paid the female personality of Mam Diarra Bousso in terms of a literate tradition. However, the oral tradition about the life and actions of the mother of Shaykh Amadou Bamba is great and very much alive, not least in the minds and in the conversations of Mourid women.

To write about Mam Diarra Bousso as a religious personality and about her cult, partly with the Mourid women's own words, means breaking the religious male hegemony. Thus, in this paper descriptions and stories related to female religiosity do not serve as context only. The ethnography has its own meaning as alternative text, as a kind of "writing against the male normative religious discourse." The mapping of female religiosity leads into an analysis of the rituals with the help of ritual theory and with references to earlier anthropological studies - particularly Susan Starr Sered's work. New aspects of female - and to a certain extent male - religiosity become visible through the analysis of the Mourid rituals.11

Prof. Marc Gaborieau (EHESS Paris):

"What is left of Sufism in Tablighi Jama'at ?"

The first study of Tablighi Jama'at (M. Anwarul Haq, "The Faith Movement of Mawlana Muhammad Ilyas", 1972) presented this movement as the direct heir to the Chishtiyya Sufi order, an interpretation which I have questioned in several of my publications. I wish to avail myself of this symposium to elaborate on this question. One cannot deny that there is a Sufi substratum to the organization of Tablighi Jama'at: the founder and his successors were initiated and practicing Sufis; in many ways it can be said the leadership of the movement looks like a familial Sufi order. But the movement as a whole, in its teachings, recruitment and rituals, does not at all work as a mystical brotherhood. Sufism is invoked as legitimation; but it does not explain the real nature of the movement.11

Dr. Albrecht Hofheinz (CMOS Berlin):

"Sudanese Sufis on the Internet"

The Sudanese Sammaniyya tariqa of Shaykh Hasan al-Fatih Qariballah -- one of the Sudan's most prominent living Sufi leaders -- was among the forerunners of Muslim activities on the Internet. In 1995, at a time when Islam on the net was mostly a diaspora affair, it registered what may be regarded as the most prestigious domain names available to Muslims: Allah.com, Muhammad.com, and Mosque.com. With the help of business and technical contacts to the UAE and the Arab community in Houston, TX, Shaykh Qariballah's vehemently anti-"Wahhabi" group experimented with various technical means to establish the first "Mosque of the Internet". Before the universal adoption of CD-ROM libraries, they offered what at the time was the largest online library of Arabic Islamic reference books, both classical and modern. They also ran an "Interactive Islamic College" with online reading courses on Islam concluded by certificates in the ijaza tradition.

As the years went by, the Sammaniyya could not keep up with the speed of Internet development. Design lapsed, the Arabic library became a casualty of a hard disk crash, and a proper Arabic site was never established. A note was added saying that "The Mosque of the Internet: Mosque.com is soley [sic] for Non-Muslims to welcome them to Islam NOT to wahabi-colt [sic]. Please, if you are already a Muslim, go to the physical mosque near you".
This paper discusses the ups and downs of Shaykh Qariballah's site as an example of how enterprising Sufi groups recognizing the potential of the new medium attempted to put it to use, and of difficulties they faced in the 'real world' of the net. By comparing the Sammaniyya's experience to the net presence of the Burhaniyya, another 'modern' Sudanese brotherhood, and to the various Naqshbandi-Haqqani sites, it will be argued that contrary to early assumptions, the Internet does not offer equal opportunities to every player, but that large-scale success on the net depends more and more on the presence of capital, 'real' networks, or both.11

Dr. Michael Laffan (Leiden University):

"From alternative medicine to national cure: The Indonesian periodical <Sufi>."

Whilst studies of Indonesian Islam, and particularly modern manifestations of Islamist discourse, have not always given equal space to treatments of Sufism, this has reflected in part their relative quietism - at least in the public sphere. In this short presentation, I wish to present some recent field notes concerning a recent journal published in Jakarta from 2000 under the title Sufi: Jalan menuju ilahi. Under the direction of a young murshid, Luqman Hakim, this periodical aims to stimulate an awareness of Sufism in Indonesian society in general, but in a way that presents most forms of mysticism as being equally valid - provided that they have certification from a quasi-national body that examines the claims of the genealogy. This is the Rabitah Tarekat Muktabarah, a body under the umbrella organization Nahdlatul Ulama. This journal is also interesting from the point of view of its own genealogy, emerging from the question-and-answer pages of a periodical specializing in 'metaphysics and alternative medecine'. Hence I would like to ask what sort of medecine it proposes to the ailments of Indonesia today, and how the dosage should be administered.11

Dr. Roman Loimeier (Universität Bayreuth):

"Networks of saints: transnational links of the Qadiriyya"

Descriptions of the development of contemporary Muslim communities often assume a contrast between younger Islamic reform movements with a strongly transnational outlook, on the one hand, and older Sufi movements which are first of all locally based, on the other. This view overlooks that Islamic reform movements today can look back on a tradition of local attachment over several generations and that Sufi brotherhoods care for their transnational relations and for their own concepts of reform.
The example of the Qâdiriyya in (Northern Nigeria and) Eastern Africa will be used to show how, on the one hand, local conditions influence the development of a Sufi-brotherhood and how, on the other, local conditions are affected by translocal ties of the brotherhood. In this context, the question well be addressed how the societal impact of certain teachings and practices of the Qâdiriyya has changed under specific local conditions in particular historical contexts.11

Prof. Alexandre Popovic (EHESS Paris):

"Les Turuq balkaniques au tournant." ("Balkanic turuq at the turning point" - paper in French)

Several turuq have taken root in different Balkanic regions from the beginning of Ottoman conquests in the peninsula, in the 15th to 16th centuries (the Bektâshiyya, the Bayrâmiyya, the Naqshbandiyya, the Khalwatiyya... ), while others have established themselves somewhat later, between the 16th and 18th centuries (the Malâmiyya-Bayrâmiyya, the Qâdiriyya, the Mawlawiyya, the Rifâ'iyya, the Sa'diyya, numerous branches of the Khalwatiyya... ), or even much later, such as the Melâmiyya-Nûriyya that made its appearance only in the second half of the 19th century.

Some of these turuq (or of their branches) have had a particularly long and complex history, while others had a rather ephemeric existence, depending on historical circumstances, period, and region. Their spread evidently corresponded to local conditions of the "Ottoman Empire" and to its global preoccupations at the respective moment, because the Porte clearly used the turuq according to its current interests: colonisation of recently-conquered territories, Islamisation and later "Sunnitisation" of the population, support for the armies (especially in moments of war), urbanisation or, to the contrary, enforcement of the Muslim element in rural areas of certain regions, etc. But there was also a constant concern with keeping under control (through the turuq as intermediaries) the two poles of Sufism: "individual Sufism", on the one hand, which was represented by the great theorists of Muslim mysticism among scholars and their disciples and the popular beliefs and devotion among a major part of the population, on the other hand, which was represented by visits to the tombs of saints, by medico-magical healing practices, etc.

In this way, over time, a long-standing custom of the turuq gradually developed and perpetuated itself : that they had to "adapt" themselves to new situations (partly to the "modernity" that arrived from non-Muslim countries, and partly to those that were dictated by politival, economic and social changes), becoming acquainted with a continuous aggiornamento which has renewed itself repeatedly since the end of the Ottoman era, notably during each of the new periodes: the one of the Balkanic nation-states (where Islam evidently could not aspire anymore for a dominant role within these states), the fascist period, the communist and finaly the post-communist one. Consequently, the fall of the Berlin Wall in November 1989, followed by the fall of the communist powers on the Balkan, clearly also represents a new stage in the well-known sense of "change in continuity", with all the mystifications this comprises, in the "re-reading" of the past and in the assimilation of new currants and tendencies...

In my contribution, I intend to recall first very briefly the situation which existed towards the end of 1989 ; I will then analyse generally (as far as possible) the two principal dynamics which have manifested themselves since then: the renewal of old networks, and the spread of new networks (coming from Turkey, Iran, or other Muslim countries, as well as from different balkanic diasporas in western Europe, the USA, and elsewhere) ; and will finally attempt some answers to the four questions raised in the round-letter by the convenors of this workshop.11

Dr. Dietrich Reetz (CMOS Berlin):

"Sufi spirituality fires reformist zeal: the Tablighi Jamaat in today's India and Pakistan"